Sunday, April 29, 2012

American Exceptional-ism, (With Exceptions Attached): The noted American novelist E. L. Doctorow lays out the road the leaders of the United States have taken us in the wake of the new century. Example: "If you’re one of the conservative majority of a refurbished Supreme Court, rule that corporations, no less than human beings, have the right under the First Amendment to express their political point of view. To come to this judgment, do not acknowledge that corporations lack the range of feelings or values that define what it is to be human..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/unexceptionalism-a-primer.html?src=me&ref=general

It's an odd situation, Marty. Conservative economic policies under Romney may become more deregulated and pro-business UNLESS the economy recovers from the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression caused in large part by...wait for it.... extreme deregulation of the investment banking industry! Now GOP politicians who now want to start the process all over again.

Doesn't seem logical to me, but I'm sure it makes sense to the Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers.

Of course it does Doug, those rich guys and the biggest corporations want more money and want to be able to pollute the air more so the poor in this country die off....they want this country to be "the land of the rich" and no one else.

hopefully the economy is semi stable and will not have a major stumble anytime in the near future. I did not vote for President Obama last time. I did not think he had enough experience. He definitely has more experience than Mr Romney.

I think it is only in the US where the concept of 'corporate personage' has any legal credibility. The idea that corporations have constitutional rights is an absurdity because all corporations are personality disordered....they are psychopathic, lacking any sense of moral propriety, empathy or conscience - and therefore if they ever did have 'rights' - they must be prevented from exercising them by dint of their antisocial behaviour resulting from that mental disorder.

Thaks for the interesting link. The most disturbuing aspects from the series of srticles there is the high prevalence of psychopathic behavior (4 percent!) and the willing suspension of belief most of us have that people share a common sense of empathy for others or concern about the future.

Also, th fact that psychopaths tend to be fascinating people and, if they are not hurting anyone at least, interesting people. (Artists like Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King figured this out to their advantage in the marketplace.)

I've known at least one aquiantence who absolutely ruined the lives of family members and friends (at least for a time). He reportedly even today is aparently unconcerned with the path of harm and upset he caused.

So in sum, to me, a corporation is only as good as the people who run it and the structure of a profit-making corporation would seem to favor the sort of high-risk, careless manner of a psychopathic personality. (Or at least a borderline case.)